Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Psychological Warfare

I was disinclined to play so-called mind games with opponents. However, there was one idea I used that was aimed directly at the opponents’ physiology as well as their psychology.

Never did I want to call the first time-out during a game. Never. It was almost a fetish with me because I stressed conditioning to such a degree. I wanted UCLA to come out and run our opponents so hard that they would be forced to call the first time-out just to catch their breath. I wanted them to have to stop the running before we did.

At that first time-out, the opponent would know, and we would know they knew, who was in better condition.

This has a psychological impact.